Jace's Erasure

[Jables237]

Surprised I haven't read about this one yet but when I get my hands on this card I'm making a deck off it.

Jace's Erasure M11, 1U, Enchantment, "Whenever you draw a card, you may have target player put the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard."

So at first I blew past this card not thinking anything of it (like the rest of M11), but than I thought about Sensai's Divining Top and Helm of Awakening. 2 tops swapping back and forth to top card of library for infinite loop. Instant deck'd opponent.

All targets are Enlightened tutor targets, and tops can be trinket mage'd. So getting the right cards shouldn't be too hard. With a solid arsenal of counter spells to back you up and a little bit of white removal I think this could be a pretty decent combo deck. Haven't really hashed out an exact list but wanted to get the creative juices flowing. I am thinking the core of the deck will be something like:

20-24 Lands: standard Tundras and Fetchs and basic (I like to stick with basic lands when possible)

Combo Cards:
4 Jace's Erasure
4 Sensai's divining Top
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Enlightened Tutor
2-4 Trinket Mage

Combo Back Up:
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Counterspell

Removal:
4x Swords to Plowshares
1-2 Oblivion Ring
1-2 Path to Exile
1-2 Wrath of God

So the goal is to get 2 tops. Helm of Awakening and Jace's Erasure in play and win by decking. I like the idea of the enchantment instead of just brain freeze because it is tutorable. Nothing but counter spells and removal for this one trick pony. I have been debating counterbalance because top is already in the deck, but that seems to go outside the strategy. It is cheaper to activate than Painter's combo because once you have the 2 tops and the enchantment, it is all free. So I think this is a very viable strategy, any thoughts or input would be fantastic. Thanks

[Zinch]

Do you realise that you have to pay for the tops in your "loop"?

If any, this can be a tool for slow decking an opponent or you have to play helm of awakening to win, in which case this is nothing new (a brain freeze does the same at that point)

[routlaw]

How do you get the actual draw out of this without having to cast the tops over and over again for one colorless per draw? Seems like it needs a piece like Helm of Awakening, right?

[Jables237]

lol I am an idiot forgot about the helm. Kind of got caught up in the idea, sorry about that.

[DrJones]

The only card that makes the Top free to cast is Locket of Yesterdays with one top on the graveyard. Seems too difficult to get all the pieces right to be worth it.

Edit: Just remembered another one: Helm of Awakening

Edit 2: D'oh.

[Jables237]

That is another way but your right about being too hard. Etherium Sculptor and Cloud Key would also work but Sculptor is a critter so is gonna get killed quickly and cloud key costs 3 (but doesnt help opponent either). So there are a few options to make the top free, but Helm does seem to be easiest.

[nexus blue]

okay, i'm not seeing why this doesn't work, so i would appreciate if someone could help me.
the errata on the helm states it can lower the cost to zero, but not below, so the tops should be free to cast. with jace's erasure in play and two tops and the helm, it seems like it should work. help please!?!?!

[troopatroop]

No, it works, but it's still bad. It's a whopping 4! card combo. Two tops, Helm of Awakening, and this. That is far too disruptible, and you absolutely require a helm or you're not doing anything. There are two card combos that win the game, why would you play one that needs 4? and it's far from creative, it's actually grossly obvious. Sorry to rain on your parade.

[nexus blue]

Well, the combo may require too much to be truly competetive, but milling is one of my favorite ways to win, so I'm happy to tinker with the OP.

Land
1 Academy Ruins
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
6 Island
5 Plains

Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Jace's Erasure
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Fabricate
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Helm of Awakening
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Counterbalance
1 Tormod's Crypt

Sideboard
Adjust to metagame

I know the OP discarded CounterTop b/c it isn't in the flavor of the idea, but needing four pieces means you need a way to hold. I like the controlling nature, but I'm new to Legacy so I'm sure there are other cards out there that will do a better job. Since it's been acknowledged that a four card combo is probably a tough thing to get going, save the bashing and just add constructive thoughts and improvements. After all, this is a "developmental" decks forum. Cheers!

[xTrainx]

This deck will definitely need a control nature to it in order to win.

In my opinion, sticking ThopterSword in there wouldn't be such a bad idea; just an alternate wincon for things like Pithing Needle.

Of course, the issue that it is yet another artifact combo remains...

[chokin]

Etherium Scultpor adds Helm redundancy. Trinket Mage tutors for Tops.

[Jables237]

lol then we are just playing counter-top foundry, which is actually what I currently play, but Erasure is just too silly not to be messed with

[rufus]

There's also potential with Fluctuator and Bauble/Egg approaches.

[Lorgalis]

Artificer's Intuition can be your friend in this deck.

[JeroenC]

You might as well just win with Brainfreeze or Grapeshot(gets past any decks with Eldrazi in 'em, too) if you want to pursue this.

[Jables237]

So I have tried to get this working, and it does in a nice casual setting but it is nothing close to competative. Ah well, it was fun trying. Thanks for the great input guys. :)

[DrJones]

The Fluctuator + Jace's Erasure deck sucks. Not even Long-Term plans + Street Wraith makes it good enough. :(

[Red_Death01]

Jace's Erasure can have certain potential... I don't see it working in Legacy Format though- it would take to long for anything to really take affect :/ There will probably be a standard version of this deck floating around soon enough...